BLUE JAYS’ LATEST HIRE TOOK SCENIC ROUTE TO TEAM.

JAYS’ NEW HIRE HAS WANDERED THE GLOBE IN HIS QUEST FOR BASEBALL KNOWLEDGE

On the last stop of his global tour as an enterprising infielder, Gil Kim settled in a stadium clubhouse in Venezuela. It became his workplace, his school and his home.

“Every night, I pulled out a mattress in the home team’s lockerroom and I literally slept in the bathroom. That’s where I lived,” he says in a tone suggesting it was a splendid time indeed.

A five-foot-six utility player, Kim played in the Netherlands, China, Australia and Spain before landing in Mariara, Venezuela. At each stop, he absorbed a new culture, built new relationships and opened a door to a new opportunity.

During those nights on the bathroom floor in 2008, he could not have imagined that his stay in Mariara would be a stepping-stone to a front-office job with the Toronto Blue Jays. At the time, it was just another in a series of invigorating risks that Kim had embraced since graduating from Vanderbilt University three years earlier.

This week, the Blue Jays hired Kim away from the Texas Rangers to be their first director of player development. He will oversee the club’s minor- league operation, which includes eight teams in three countries, as well as the staff in various disciplines that shape individual programs for each player in the system.

Kim is only 34, and he admits he was surprised when the Jays sought permission from the Rangers to interview him. But he is no stranger to big challenges. In fact, he tends to seek them out, as he did when he chose to live in that stadium clubhouse instead of the more conventional housing available to players.

“As crazy as it sounds, I learned to feel comfortable there,” he says. “You were there from early in the morning, played a game, and then there were a few hours in the afternoon when I studied Spanish with the clubhouse attendants there, and then you went to sleep. It was an uncomfortable situation that you got comfortable with pretty quickly.” Knowing Spanish is a big plus for anyone seeking a long- term career in baseball. That was one reason Kim went to Spain to play for a team owned by soccer giant FC Barcelona. While there in 2008, he met an opposing manager who also managed a minor-league team in Venezuela. So after the season ended in Spain’s top-flight Division de Honor league, Kim and his new manager departed for Mariara.

At 26, Kim was considerably older than his teammates, many of whom were teenagers. All had signed with big-league clubs. Kim was under no illusions about making it to The Show — he just wanted to keep playing and keep learning.

“Everybody was a signed prospect except me,” he says. “So it was a very good opportunity to learn what that system is like, and learn from those kids what they’ve been going through and what their life is like in Venezuela. I think the best teaching tool I had from these experiences was learning how to connect with people from different backgrounds and cultures. It helped me in my jobs with the Rangers, especially with the Venezuelan players, knowing I could relate to them.”

Shortly after wrapping up his peripatetic playing career in Venezuela, Kim — a Pennsylvania native — took an intern job with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2009. Two months later, he jumped at the Rangers’ offer to work as an area scout in Mexico. His fluency in Spanish had quickly become a professional asset, as it would in subsequent assignments, including his most recent job as the Rangers’ director of international scouting.

While working in Mexico in 2011, Kim had his eye on a 16- year- old right-hander who would become a fan favourite in Toronto four years later.

“I was living 4 ½ hours away from Roberto Osuna and got to know him and his family very, very well,” he says. “In fact, the first conversation I ever had with Tony LaCava was in 2011 when we were both scouting Roberto. That obviously worked out very well for Toronto.”

LaCava, a veteran scout, was and remains an assistant general manager for the Jays. Last week, LaCava was part of the front-office team that interviewed Kim for the Toronto job. In the news release announcing Kim’s hiring, the Jays said he “will oversee the commitment of player development leaders and staff to include each player in the process of creating and realizing their physical, mental and fundamental goals.” In declaring Kim an overseer of the commitment of others, it seemed a somewhat unusual mission statement.

Asked what that means, Kim said it’s about accountability, his own included.

“From staff to players and everybody else in the organization, we have a commitment to get better every day,” he says. “Every staff member, every coach, every player — we need to be held accountable. It’s our responsibility to maximize our potential to help bring a World Series to the Toronto Blue Jays. It’s a very important message to get out there.”

Getting better every day was on Kim’s mind during his ball-playing excursion through five countries, including a couple where he took other jobs to make ends meet. (He worked in construction in Australia and in a hostel in Spain.) It was an unconventional apprenticeship, but ultimately it helped him reach the big leagues.

“I’ve always had an interest in different cultures and experiences, and maybe putting myself in uncomfortable new situations,” he says.

“That was an intriguing part of that journey. But it was also just a genuine love and passion to play baseball. I wanted to continue playing, and I realized that it was maybe not going to be a path to the major leagues. Along the way, I was training myself in other ways to make a career in baseball.”

And now, Gil Kim comes to Toronto, in a new job, a different culture and maybe another slightly uncomfortable situation. From Beijing to Barcelona to a bathroom floor in Venezuela, he has had plenty of practice.